Visit Notes

Sunday, 14th January 2007

Another of Ireland's unsung sites. Apart from the few complete court tombs that are still buried in peat, the gallery here is in such an amazing state of preservation. Piled up against the outside of the orthostats that define the gallery there are huge slabs that raise the wall height to over 2m. This huge corbelling would have been present in the vast majority of court tombs. Seeing this effect allows you to realise that other court tomb that seem very low were once much higher.

There is a lot of the cairn still in place, too. Some of this has been moved about and the court stones are possibly hidden beneath this. There is an odd standing stone to the northeast of the entrance. I don't know if this is an original feature: it could be a solitary court stone or it could be a marker stone, because a line from the entrance to the gallery through this stone would continue on to Croagh Patrick.

The gallery points roughly east towards the Sheeffry Hills. To the southeast the Mweel Rea Mountains dominate the view. As the monument is built near to the top of a southeasterly facing slope there are no views to the north or west.

The gallery is divided in to two chambers by jambs and a low sill stone. The entrance has a large jamb on the lefthand side and some drystone walling on the right. The latter is not original and was added when the tomb was used previously as a cowshed (A. Weir).

In wedge tombs and court tombs the burial compartment is known as a gallery and collectively wedge and court tombs are called classified as 'gallery graves'. This is because the inner area is long and narrow, i.e. bascially rectangular, in plan.

In court tombs the gallery is usually divided into two or more chambers by jambs. Wedge tombs are segmented by sill stones, as are a few court tombs.

In wedge tombs and court tombs the burial compartment is known as a gallery and collectively wedge and court tombs are called classified as 'gallery graves'. This is because the inner area is long and narrow, i.e. bascially rectangular, in plan.

In court tombs the gallery is usually divided into two or more chambers by jambs. Wedge tombs are segmented by sill stones, as are a few court tombs.

Like this monument

Marked Sites

Random Gazetteer

A Selection of Other Court Tombs

About Coordinates Displayed

This is an explanation of (and a bit of a disclaimer for) the
coordinates I provide.

Where a GPS figure is given this is the master for all other
coordinates. According to my Garmin these are quite accurate.

Where there is no GPS figure the 6 figure grid reference is master
for the others. This may not be very accurate as it could have come
from the OS maps and could have been read by eye. Consequently, all
other cordinates are going to have inaccuracies.

The calculation of Longitude and Latitude uses an algorithm that is
not 100% accurate. The long/lat figures are used as a basis for
calculating the UTM & ITM coordinates. Consequently, UTM & ITM
coordinates are slightly out.

UTM is a global coordinate system - Universal Transverse Mercator -
that is at the core of the GPS system.

ITM is the new coordinate system - Irish Transverse Mercator - that
is more accurate and more GPS friendly than the Irish Grid Reference
system. This will be used on the next generation of Irish OS maps.